Samuel M. DeHaven

Samuel M. DeHaven

â€œHistory of Huntington County, Indianaâ€1914 By Frank S. Bash pg.793-94

Samuel M. DeHaven. No better illustration of Huntington county agriculture in its most progressive and prosperous phase could be found than on the stock farm of Samuel M. DeHaven in Rock Creek township. Mr. DeHaven is known as the owner and proprietor of Pleasant Hill Stock Farm, located on section 10 of the township, three and a half miles southwest of Markle. Mr. DeHaven has prospered as a businessman, has established a good home, and has a pleasant family about him and stands high in the esteem of his fellow citizens. Twenty or twenty-five years ago, it is instructive to note, he was employed as a common laborer in a brick yard, and it was as a result of careful economy and persistent application year in and year out that he won his substantial position.

Samuel M. DeHaven was born on a farm in Rock Creek township, September 22, 1865. He was one of the three children of Joseph and Hannah (Ewart) DeHaven. His father is still living and a resident of Rock Creek township. The other two children were: Caroline E., wife of C. M. Lantis of Wells county, Indiana; and Albert M., who married Emma Hoover, and is a farmer in Rock Creek township.

The early years of Samuel M. DeHaven were spent on the old home farm in Huntington county. During the winter months he attended with more or less regularity the district schools, and learned the practical lessons of farming at home during the summer months. That was his manner of life until he was twenty-one years old, and his father then gave him a horse and buggy and permission to start life on his own account. For eighteen months he was employed by W. H. Heindel in the latterâ€™s brick yard. His wages during this time were eighteen dollars a month, and by strict savings he had some capital to broaden his operation on an independent basis. After that he rented a farm from Mr. Heindel and cropped it for two years. On March 28, 1891, Mr. DeHaven took his next important step in life when he married Matilda E. Heindel, a daughter of his former employer, W. H. Heindel. Mrs. DeHaven was born April 9, 1870. She received her education in the district schools of Rock Creek township, and has proved herself a capable assistant to her husband and an excellent home maker. There are three children: Orla V., who graduated from the Rock Creek township high school, is a farmer in that township, and married Mae Brown; Hazel, a graduate of the high school is now teaching in her home township; Ilene is a student in the Rock Creek high school. Mr. DeHaven affiliates with Markle Lodge No. 423 of the Knights of Pythias, and in politics is a democrat. At his home place, Pleasant Hill Stock Farm he has one hundred and eighty-three acres of land, and owns eighty-two and a quarter acres situated elsewhere in the same township. His business is that of general farming and stock raising, and his success in that line is hardly second to that of any other Rock Creek township citizen. He is also one of the stock holders in the Farmersâ€™ Trust Company at Huntington.